We were going to launch West Virginia Red years ago, but found we did not have the time to devote to rightwing parody. Hopefully the new West Virginia Red will be more than that.
"I think there was definitely a void on the Internet for Republicans, for conservatives," the 26-year-old said, "and I hope West Virginia Red will fill that void."
The site launched Sunday and takes its name from West Virginia Blue, a site that features pieces on Democratic politics and progressive issues.
"I think all of us who are involved in political circles in West Virginia are very aware of West Virginia Blue," said Stauffer, who managed state Supreme Court candidate Beth Walker's unsuccessful campaign.
I actually welcome West Virginia Red, because I think citizen activism at the netroots level is good for politics. But am I the only one who gives props to Gary Abernathy and Vic Sprouse? There was hardly a void on the Internet for West Virginia Republicans since those two have been on the web for a while.
The launch is also part of a wider Republican effort to rally young people, a group that has increasingly identified itself as Democratic, according to national surveys.
"In order for us to make inroads in that group, we have to go where they get their news; we have to go where they talk to each other, and that's online," Stauffer said.
But seriously, Republicans have lost young people by a 2-to-1 margin to Democrats because of their policies not because of online sites.
There was a time around 2002 when the political Internet was dominated by rightwinger Glenn Reynolds. It's the substance of the Republican message and not its method of delivery that is costing Republicans a generation of voters.
Until Republicans change their pro-war, anti-science, anti-immigrant, anti-gay, anti-choice policies (or becomes "pro-sex" as Meghan McCain cutely put it on Stephen Colbert), the Grand Old Party will remain just the Old Party.
Update:
It's not just the young people either. New Gallup Poll:
GOP Losses Span Nearly All Demographic Groups
PRINCETON, NJ -- The decline in Republican Party affiliation among Americans in recent years is well documented, but a Gallup analysis now shows that this movement away from the GOP has occurred among nearly every major demographic subgroup. Since the first year of George W. Bush's presidency in 2001, the Republican Party has maintained its support only among frequent churchgoers, with conservatives and senior citizens showing minimal decline.
snip
So far in 2009, aggregated Gallup Poll data show the divide on leaned party identification is 53% Democratic and 39% Republican -- a marked change from 2001, when the parties were evenly matched, according to an average of all of that year's Gallup Polls. That represents a loss of five points for the Republicans and a gain of eight points for the Democrats.
While Republicans under George W. Bush strove for the 50 percent plus 1 to win elections with the base, the Democratic Party has built a broader coalition. The West Virginia Democratic Party has a +19 percent advantage in party identification over the West Virginia GOP.
Update 2
Here's Meghan McCain talking sex with Colbert. |
